


The Blights Stick Together

by Amity_towards_all



Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-10
Updated: 2020-12-04
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:02:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 18,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27492373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amity_towards_all/pseuds/Amity_towards_all
Summary: After reflecting on how they've treated Amity over the years, Edric and Emira start to feel guilty and decide to do whatever it takes to improve their relationship.However, Ed's and Em's idea of a good sibling relationship involves spendingalltheir time together, the way they do with each other. And it's not long before having her brother and sister around her all the time causes a lot of trouble for Amity.
Relationships: Amity Blight & Edric Blight & Emira Blight, Amity Blight & Edric Blight & Emira Blight & Luz Noceda, Amity Blight & Principal Bump, Amity Blight/Luz Noceda, Edric Blight & Emira Blight, Edric Blight & Emira Blight & Eda Clawthorne, Principal Bump & Eda Clawthorne
Comments: 125
Kudos: 381





	1. Ed, Em, and Amity Go Out

**Author's Note:**

> This can act as a sequel to [another story](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26463562/chapters/64481833) I wrote, but it should also make sense if read on its own.

A few days after Grom, Ed, Em, and Amity were out together, avoiding going home for as long as possible. Ed and Em had gotten into some mischief that had ended up ruining Blight Manor’s normally perfectly kept lawn. When they'd heard their mom coming home, they'd rushed out to avoid facing her with Amity accompanying them. They'd just finished watching a street performer and his trained pixies.

“That was so lame,” Ed said.

“Yeah,” Amity agreed. “I’ve seen even Boscha’s pixies do better tricks than that, and she’s the _worst_ at training them.”

“He’d be better off just using them for the dust,” Em said.

It had been a long time since the three of them had been out together just to have fun. Although none of them were completely at ease, with Ed and Em worried about the punishment that faced them at home and Amity unable to stop thinking in the back of her mind that she really should’ve been spending this time studying, all three of them were thinking about how nice it was.

It was Em who first said that aloud. “This is nice, isn’t it?”

“Yeah!” Ed said. “We should do this more often.”

“Yeah,” Amity said. “You know, I’m really glad things aren’t so messed up between us anymore the way they were before the library incident.”

Amity had said that casually, and her tone made it clear that she’d meant that as a positive comment, but Ed and Em were a bit taken aback by it.

“Come on,” Em said after a moment. “Things weren’t _that_ bad between us.”

“What?” Amity said. She opened her mouth to say more, but then closed it, shook her head, and said, “Never mind, forget it.”

Ed and Em looked at each other again, neither of them sure what to say next. But the awkward moment was interrupted when Amity pointed and said, “Hey, look, it’s Principal Bump.”

Ed and Em instinctively took that as an invitation to get out of sight, but after walking a few steps, they realized that Amity had gone in the other direction.

“Is she actually going over to say hello to him?” Ed said.

“I don’t know,” Em said. “Who can figure her out? We were having such a nice time. Why did she have to say all that weird stuff about things being messed up between us?”

“Well… they kind of were, weren’t they?” Ed said.

Em was surprised. She’d expected Ed to back her up like they usually did for each other. But she remembered that since he’d been the one to draw the claws and eyebrows on Otabin, leading to Amity almost being bound in a book, he’d felt especially guilty about that day in the library, although Em had assured him and told Amity that she’d been doing the same kind of thing that night and it could’ve just as easily have been her.

“Come on,” Em said. “The library thing was an accident, and we made up for it. Other than that, what have we ever done to her besides some teasing?”

“Maybe all that teasing bothered her more than we realized.”

“What are you talking about? Whenever we teased her, she just got a little annoyed. It’s not like she’s sensitive.”

“What if she’s more sensitive than we think? Maybe she was just putting up a front.”

“But… but we’re her family. Why would she feel the need to put up a front for us?”

Em was getting uneasy with this line of thought.

“Hey,” she said after a moment. “You’re acting like it was all one-sided. It’s not like she was the nicest witch to us either. And the whole library thing never would’ve happened if she hadn’t always been trying to get us in trouble for cutting class.”

“Yeah…” Ed said uncertainly. Then, more confidently, he said, “You know, you’re right. And it’s not like she’s ever said sorry about that or anything.”

“Yeah,” Em said. “And since the library thing, we’ve never brought that up. We forgive and forget. Why can’t she?”

Ed and Em nodded at each other, but both kept thinking about Amity and whether they’d upset her over the years more than they’d realized.

* * *

While Ed and Em were discussing Amity, she was going over to Principal Bump, rolling her eyes upon the realization that her brother and sister had gone in the other direction.

“Amity?” Bump said once he’d spotted her.

“Hi, Principal Bump,” she said.

Bump noticed that Amity seemed quite relaxed and cheerful. It was surprising. Ever since Amity had enrolled at Hexside, he’d known her to be quite… severe. Maybe that was just how she was at school. Regardless, she was one of his favorite students, so it was nice to see her in good spirits.

“How are you doing?” he said.

“Fine. I was just here with Edric and Emira.”

“Oh,” Principal Bump said in a slightly sour tone. Although Edric and Emira were talented witches and always did well in school, they were certainly far from ideal students when it came to anything other than performing well on tests. Back when Amity had been about to enroll, he’d been worried about another such rapscallion in his midst. But of course, Amity had turned out to be completely different from her siblings.

“Well, it’s nice to see you,” Principal Bump said.

“Uh, Principal Bump, do you think I could ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“I was just wondering whether it might’ve… looked bad to you when I asked you if someone else could be made Grom Queen.”

It had been something that had been bothering Amity since Grom. She hated the idea of disappointing any of her teachers. It was a testament to just how mortified she’d been at the thought of everyone seeing her fear that she’d gone ahead and asked anyway

Bump considered how to answer. Facing Grom was a formidable task, and it was certainly understandable that Amity had tried to avoid it. Still, he’d been surprised by the request. He was used to Amity jumping at every chance to impress Hexside faculty.

“I wasn’t disappointed,” he said. “There’s no harm in asking. But… you still want to join the Emperor’s Coven someday, right?”

“Of course!”

“Then you should know that to succeed there, you’ll be asked to do many things that will make you uncomfortable. And what they like to see is people who enthusiastically say yes to whatever is asked of them. You should keep that in mind."

Amity nodded. “Thanks, Principal Bump.”

After saying goodbye, Amity walked back over to Ed and Em, who were still reflecting on their treatment of her.

“It’s getting pretty late,” Amity said. “When do you think we should head back?”

Immediately, the twins’ thoughts turned back to their fear of the punishment that awaited.

“There has to be some way to talk our way out of this,” Ed said. He’d been the one truly responsible for the mess on the lawn, so he was especially desperate to figure something out.

“I don’t see how,” Em said. “Not this time.”

“I hope you guys don’t get in too much trouble,” Amity said.

Ed and Em looked at her quizzically.

“What?” Amity asked.

“It’s just kind of funny to hear you say that,” Em said.

“What do you mean?”

“Just a few weeks ago, you were always _trying_ to get us in trouble,” Ed answered.

“Oh,” Amity said. “Yeah. I guess I was. I’m sorry.”

Ed and Em looked at each other. They’d just been talking about how Amity had never apologized for tattling on them, and here she was doing it.

“Well… why were you?” Em asked.

Amity sighed. “I don’t know, I guess I was jealous that you guys can always get away with things when I felt like I could never get away with anything.” Amity didn’t say it, but she thought maybe she was also jealous of them for another reason. She used to feel so lonely, but they’d always had someone they could count on. “But I shouldn’t have let that bother me.”

“Hey,” Ed said. “All that’s in the past now, right?”

“Yeah,” Em said.

But as they walked back home, both the twins, especially Em, kept thinking about their relationship with Amity and whether they’d been more at fault than they’d thought.


	2. Ed and Em Make a Decision

On the way home, Ed, Em, and Amity passed by the entrance to a park where they ran into one of Ed’s and Em’s friends, a witch named Troquile with a head like a giant hummingbird’s.

“Oh, hi guys!” she said to the twins. 

Ed and Em said hello in turn.

“Amity, is that you?” Troquile said.

Amity nodded.

“I haven’t seen you in such a long time!" Troquile said. "You've gotten so big! What are the three of you up to?”

“Just hanging out,” Ed said.

“Oh,” Troquile said. “You know, it’s funny. Ed and Em, I _always_ see you two together, but I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen all three of you together.”

Ed and Em exchanged uneasy glances.

“Um… we spend time with Amity,” Em said after a moment.

“Oh, I’m sure you do! I didn’t mean anything by that.”

“So, what are you doing here?” Ed asked, eager to change the subject.

“I’m just waiting for Eulidia.”

“Eulidia’s her little sister,” Ed explained to Amity.

“Yeah,” Troquile said. “Her friend's having a half-birthday party in the park. I’m here to pick her up.”

“Oh, what a pain,” Em said.

“A pain?” Troquile’s brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”

“Well… having to pick her up,” Em said.

“I don’t _have_ to; I want to! Eulidia and I look for any chance we get to spend time together!”

Indeed, Ed and Em remembered all the times they’d tried making plans with Troquile only to find out that she was already doing something with her little sister. It had happened multiple times in the past few days alone.

“Uh… same with us!” Em said with forced cheer. “Right, Mittens?”

Em grabbed Amity by the side in a tight embrace, but Amity pushed her away.

“Hey, quit it!” Amity said.

Troquile looked at Em with a raised eyebrow and Em gave her a nervous smile.

Then, they heard a voice call out from behind them. “Troquile!”

It was Eulidia. She ran over to jump into Troquile’s outstretched arms, and the two of them laughed as Troquile swung her around.

“Uh… that looks like fun!” Ed said with some forced cheer of his own. “Doesn’t it, Mittens?”

He put his hands under her arms to pick her up and swing her around only for her to immediately start struggling.

“What are you doing? Put me down!”

While Ed struggled with Amity, Em asked, “You two are really close, but you guys aren't _always_ like this, right?"

"What do you mean?" Troquile asked.

"Well, for example, you two must fight sometimes, right?”

The two of them gasped.

“Why would I _ever_ fight with my sister?” Troquile asked, aghast. “She’s my best friend!”

“Yeah!” Eulidia said. “I don’t know what I’d do without my big sister! She’s always looking out for me and supporting me. Just like what _you’ve_ always done for _your_ little sister. Right?”

“Uh… yeah, of course!” Em said desperately.

Em looked over to Amity, worried that she'd make some sarcastic comment in response, but luckily, she was still distracted by Ed's antics. By this point, Amity had summoned an abomination to pin him down.

"Hey, put that thing away!" Ed said.

“Well, we’d better get going,” Troquile said. “You three have fun!”

Em watched the two of them walk away, chatting and laughing gleefully, while Amity got rid of the abomination.

“Wow,” Amity said as Ed picked himself up. “Those two are so weird. What kind of siblings act that way?”

“Yeah…” Em said with her head downturned.

* * *

Soon after that, the three of them reached home, where they were surprised to find that their parents weren’t waiting for them.

“This is weird,” Ed said.

“Have you two checked your scrolls?” Amity asked.

Ed and Em had been avoiding looking at their scrolls knowing they would just be full of angry messages from their parents. They checked them, and indeed they were. But the last one was a message that their parents had left for a moment to make a quick appearance at some bigwig’s birthday party. However, they fully expected Ed and Em to be back with an explanation about the lawn by the time they returned.

“Looks like we’ve got a little more time, at least,” Ed said.

Amity went to her room to study, leaving Ed and Em to wait in the living room for their parents.

“Ed,” Em said. “I’m wondering… have we been… terrible siblings? All this time?”

“Well… we haven’t been the _best_ … but that’s all in the past, right?”

“Yeah, but… I don’t know, I just feel kind of bad about it.”

“I guess I kind of do too. But we’ve been pretty nice to Mittens lately. And spent more time with her.”

“Yeah… but maybe it’s not enough. Maybe we need to do more.”

“Like what?”

“Well… we spend _all_ our time together, right? We always have.”

“Yeah.”

“Maybe we need to stop thinking of us as the two of us and Amity and start thinking of us as the three of us.”

“Huh?”

“Oh, you know what I mean. All three of us need to spend all our time together from now on just like the two of us do.”

Ed considered it. It seemed a little extreme. But maybe Em was right. Maybe Amity had felt excluded all this time, and now was their chance to stop that.

“OK,” Ed said. “Let's do it.”

* * *

A few minutes later, Amity was studying in her room when she heard a knock at the door. She went over to unlock it and found Ed and Em outside.

“Hey,” Ed said.

“What is it?” Amity asked. Immediately, she was surprised by the twins’ demeanor. They seemed… serious. Or rather earnest. They were never like that, not even when they’d acted really remorseful and nice to her after the library incident.

“Well… we’ve been talking about it,” Em said. “And we decided we want things to be better between us.”

“Aren’t they already?”

“Yeah, but… even more so,” Ed said.

“From now on, we want all three of us to always get along and spend all our time together.” Em said. “What do you say?”

“What’s with you two? You’re acting weird.”

“Well…” Em said. “We’ve just been… thinking about some things lately…”

Em trailed off. It was so bizarre for them to act like this, especially Em. Amity’s first instinct was to scoff at them and act annoyed like she usually did. But the way they were acting was disarming. They were being so uncharacteristically sincere that it made her feel like she should let down her guard a little and reciprocate.

“Well… OK,” Amity said.

Ed and Em smiled.

“Great!” Ed said.

“We’re all going to love it!” Em said.

What Amity didn’t realize was that when Em had said that from then on, they’d spend “all” their time together, she hadn’t been exaggerating. And Amity had no idea how much trouble that pledge was going to cause her over the next few days.


	3. Ed Gets Punished

“So,” Ed said as he and Em left Amity’s room. “Since we’re on the subject of solidarity between siblings–”

“Stop right there!” Em said. “No way am I going to share the blame with you for the mess on the lawn.”

“Come on!” Ed whined. “Remember the time you broke that crystal ball and I shared the blame with you?”

“That was because _you_ told me they were unbreakable!”

“Oh yeah. Well, they _should_ be.”

Amity closed her door and picked up her textbook. Poor Ed. She’d seen the damage to the lawn and knew her parents must be livid. She wondered what was going to happen to him. Grounded for what, two months? Longer? No, her parents would probably consider grounding for any length of time too lenient. They’d do something truly cruel. She couldn’t even imagine what they’d do to him. She felt so sorry for him. No matter what he’d done, he didn’t deserve whatever was coming.

After a while, she went outside to wait for them in the hallway. Ed and Em came up looking positively forlorn.

“You guys got punished?” Amity asked.

“Ed did,” Em said.

“I’m sorry, Ed. What was it?”

Ed sighed. “I have to make an illusion so the lawn looks perfect until they can have it fixed for real.”

Amity waited for him to continue, but he wasn’t saying anything. Wow, whatever they’d punished him with must’ve been so bad it was hard for him to even say what it was.

“And… what else?” Amity asked after a moment.

Ed looked puzzled. “What do you mean?”

“Wait… that’s it?”

Ed and Em looked at each other, clearly confused. Wait, not only had they gotten off that easy, did they not even realize how easy they’d gotten off?

“Well,” Ed said, solemnly. “I’d better get to it.”

“Sorry, Ed,” Em said.

Amity couldn’t believe it. Em had said that completely sincerely!

Maybe she’d missed something. “Ed,” Amity said. “Your punishment is that you have to make an illusion so that the lawn looks fixed?”

“Yeah,” Ed confirmed. “It’s such a pain.”

“It’s going to take you like two seconds,” Amity said.

Ed smiled. “Yeah, you’re right! I can get through this. Thanks, Mittens. I needed to hear that.”

As Ed walked down the stairs, Amity tried to look on the bright side. Just a minute ago she’d been worried that her parents would do something _terrible_ to him. The fact that Ed and Em could get away with so much was just good fortune for them. She should be happy for them. Not jealous.

But it was just so unfair! She couldn’t even _begin_ to imagine what would’ve happened to her if she’d been the one to make such a mess of the lawn.

"Something wrong, Mittens?" Em asked.

"It's nothing."

"Oh, I get it. You're upset that Ed got punished. That's so sweet. But don't worry, he'll be OK."

Amity didn’t say anything. She just resisted the urge to roll her eyes and went to bed.


	4. Amity and Luz Make Plans

Amity was walking through Hexside the next day when Luz came up to her.

“Amity! I’ve been looking for you.”

Amity’s heart immediately started racing. “Luz! I– I– I– I– I wasn’t expecting to see you today!”

“Why not?”

“Oh… well… you know…”

Luz nodded in comprehension, which was odd because Amity didn’t comprehend what she’d just said herself.

“I was thinking,” Luz said. “We’ve been meaning to talk about Azura for so long, but it seems like we never get around to it. Are you busy after school today?”

Amity knew she should be studying, but she said, “No!” a little too loudly. Or maybe a lot too loudly.

“Great! Let’s meet at the library.”

“OK, but we can’t meet in my little secret room.”

“Why not?”

Amity couldn’t tell her that it was because she wasn’t sure she could handle the thought of the two of them being together in such an enclosed space, so she said, “Well, it’s such a lovely day today! Wouldn’t it be better to talk outside? There’s a nice little spot right behind the library.”

“OK, sounds great!”

Luz walked off, and Amity went to her next class with a new spring in her step. This was great! But soon after that, she was approached by Ed and Em in the hallway.

“Hey, Mittens,” Ed said. “So, what are we going to do after school?”

“I just made plans with Luz. We’re going to discuss Azura.”

“What?” Em said. “Come on, there’s got to be something else we can do.”

“Hey, it’s only fair,” Ed said. “She did what we wanted yesterday.”

“Ugh, fine,” Em said.

“Wait… you guys aren’t coming.”

Ed’s and Em’s brows furrowed as Ed asked, “What do you mean? Yesterday we said we were going to stick together from now on.”

“Yeah… but… not _all_ the time.”

“Why not?” Em asked.

“Well, we can’t do _everything_ together.”

“But Em and I do everything together,” Ed said.

“Did we do something to make you angry?” Em asked.

“No, but… come on, guys, you haven’t even read Azura.”

“We’ll figure it out,” Em said.

“We can hang out later,” Amity said.

“So… you don’t want to spend time with us?” Ed asked looking hurt.

“It’s not that, it’s just–”

“I thought things were going to be different between us from now on,” Em said.

“They will be, but–”

“Em,” Ed said placing a hand on her shoulder. “If she doesn’t want to spend time with us, she doesn’t want to spend time with us. We can’t force her.”

Em opened her mouth to contradict him, but then sighed. “OK. I guess I can’t blame her.”

Amity watched as Ed and Em turned to walk away. They looked so sad. Amity wondered, had the two of them _ever_ been so sad at the prospect of not spending time with her?

But they were being completely unreasonable. She hadn’t done anything wrong! But still, they looked _so_ sad.

And if she were being honest, the idea of being alone with Luz was suddenly a lot more nerve-wracking than it had been even just a few days ago at Grom. Maybe having two other people there would remove some of the pressure.

Amity groaned and said, “Fine, you guys can come.”

Ed and Em turned around and gave her matching beaming smiles.

“Thanks, Mittens!” Em said.

“Yeah, we’re all going to have a great time!” Ed said.

Amity rolled her eyes. But she could indulge the twins for just a bit. This little phase of theirs wouldn’t last long. In a day or two, they’d realize that they couldn’t _always_ be together, and they’d find a good balance. Right?


	5. Ed and Em Go to the Azura Book Club

As the Blights approached the library, Amity was starting to wonder whether she’d made a big mistake. Although having two other people there would take some of the pressure off the meeting, these weren’t just any two people. Ed and Em were sure to embarrass her in front of Luz.

“Guys,” Amity said. “Can you please just… be normal today?”

“What do you mean?” Ed asked.

“Yeah, _we’re_ the normal ones,” Em said.

What was that supposed to mean? Amity decided to ignore it and said, “Just don’t make fun of me. Or Luz. Or Azura. No sarcastic comments or saying you’d rather do something else.”

“Hey, why do we need to change the way we act?” Em said.

“Yeah,” Ed said. “We’ve already met Luz, and she likes us.”

“Yeah, because she hasn’t spent that much time with you yet. I’m not so lucky.”

Ed and Em gasped and looked hurt. Amity was surprised. Were they kidding around? It didn’t seem like it. But it had just been a little joke! They’d said _so_ much worse to her over the years without her falling to pieces over it. Although… they hadn’t said anything like that for a while, now that she thought about it.

After walking in silence for a few moments, Amity finally said something. “Guys, come on, it… it was just a joke. Don’t make such a big deal about it.”

Ed and Em didn’t say anything. Amity sighed. Great, now they’d act out even more to get back at her. This was shaping up to be a disaster.

Soon after that, the three of them arrived at the little courtyard behind the library where they saw that Luz was already waiting for them.

“Amity! And Ed and Em! What are you two doing here?”

“We came to join you,” Em said.

“Have you guys read Azura?” Luz asked.

Ed and Em both shook their heads as Amity gave Luz an apologetic smile and a little shrug.

“Oh… well, that’s OK!” Luz said. “I can tell you what happens and then we can all discuss.”

“You don’t have to do that,” Amity said.

“I’d be happy to!”

Luz launched into a painstakingly detailed retelling of the first Azura book, complete with recitations of certain passages she knew by heart. Ed and Em were reminded of when Amity was little and tried telling them all about those books herself. They’d never listened then, and they were having a hard time listening now. They tried to at least _look_ like they were paying attention with the occasional nod or generic comment, but they were struggling.

Watching them, Amity couldn’t believe it. Even after what she’d said, Ed and Em had listened to her request and were on their best behavior. It made her feel worse about her little comment. And she had to admit, her brother and sister acting the way she’d told them to act made them kind of… boring. She wasn’t sure she liked it.

“And that’s the end of Part One!” Luz said after a considerable length of time.

“So, what happens in the second book?” Em said automatically. Then, realizing what she’d just said, she winced as Ed shot her a look of pure fury.

“Second book?” Luz said. “No, that was Part One of the first book. That one has seven parts.”

Ed and Em looked at each other with expressions of horror.

“Um, Luz, maybe we should discuss Part One first,” Amity said.

“OK. So, what did you guys think?”

“It was… interesting,” Ed said, unable to even fake any enthusiasm.

“Yeah,” Em said, similarly dully. “Really good.”

“And what did you think of the good witch Azura?” Luz asked.

“She was… good.” Ed said.

“Did she remind you of anyone?” Luz asked in a coy tone.

Ed and Em looked confused, so Amity took a few steps behind Luz and pointed to her in an exaggerated manner.

“Oh… you!” Em said.

“She’s exactly like you,” Ed said.

“You really think so?”

“Yes!” they both yelled, finally unable to hide their exasperation, though Luz, thrilled at being compared to her fictional idol, didn’t seem to pick up on it.

“Wow!” Luz said, wide-eyed.

“Maybe we should call it a day,” Amity said, which made Ed and Em smile.

“Well, OK,” Luz said. “Let’s do this again soon!”

The Blights started walking home. Well, her siblings’ presence had definitely dispelled any romantic tension that being with Luz might’ve had for Amity. She wasn’t sure whether she was relieved or disappointed by that fact.

“Guys,” Amity said. “Thanks for not acting out. I know it wasn’t easy for you.”

Em smiled, but Ed was a bit more annoyed.

“You know,” Ed said testily. “You and Luz make a perfect pair.”

Amity gasped. “You really think so?” she asked, failing to suppress a big smile.

Ed was surprised. He hadn’t meant that as a compliment, which he thought had been obvious from his tone. When he and Em had first met Luz, they’d thought that she seemed a lot cooler and more fun than Amity, but today they’d realized that Luz and their little sister had some definite similarities after all. But seeing Amity so happy at having misinterpreted what he’d meant, Ed didn’t have the heart to set her straight and just said, “Uh… yeah, you two are great together.”


	6. The Smugglers

“So,” Ed said. “What are we going to do now?”

“I need to study,” Amity said.

“Come on, let’s go out and do something,” Em said.

“No way. I’ve let you two get me so far behind already. Enough is enough.”

“What?” Ed said. “We just sat through that whole Azura meeting for you when we could’ve been out doing something fun. It’s your turn to do what we want.”

“Are you kidding?” Amity said. “You two practically begged me to come to that. I never asked you.”

“You know, it wouldn’t kill you to show some gratitude,” Em said. “We’re going out of our way to spend time with you.”

“Yeah, well if you want to spend all your time with me, that means studying sometimes,” Amity said. “What did you expect?”

Ed and Em looked at each other, and then sighed and said, “Fine.”

“We can play some djinn rummy while we wait,” Em said. “Ed, do you still have that deck of cards?”

That took Amity by surprise.

“Wait, you guys are really going to stay at home while I study?”

“Yeah,” Ed said. “We said we’d spend all our time together from now on.”

Back at home, Amity studied in the living room rather than in her bedroom like she usually did while Ed and Em played cards next to her.

“Guys, come on,” Amity said. “There’s no point in you staying here while I study. Just go out and have fun.”

“Not without you,” Em insisted.

“Yeah,” Ed agreed.

Amity expected them to lose their patience and leave within half an hour. But they didn’t. No matter what she said, they stayed there. For four hours. Amity tried to tell herself that they were just being stubborn, but she couldn’t help but be touched. They were really serious about this, weren’t they? She put down her textbook.

“You know, I guess I’ve done enough for today. What do you two want to do?”

Ed and Em grinned.

“Let’s go goblin tipping,” Ed said.

“Yeah,” Em said.

“Well, OK,” Amity said. She’d heard Ed and Em talk about goblin tipping but had never been invited along. She'd always thought it sounded dumb, but she had to admit that she _was_ a little curious.

The three of them left Blight Manor and went over to a field with a bunch of goblins.

“OK,” Em said. “The trick is to take them by surprise and push hard so they fall over before they have a chance to resist. I’ll show you how it’s done.”

Em snuck up on one of the goblins and pushed it over.

“Hey!” it yelled out as Em laughed. The goblin picked itself up and walked away muttering, “Lousy teens.”

“Ready to try?” Em asked.

“Wait… that’s it?” Amity asked.

“What do you mean?” Ed asked.

“I mean… it just seems so stupid. What’s fun about that?”

Ed and Em didn’t really know how to answer.

Amity went on. “All these years, you made fun of me for always reading my books, and this is the ‘fun’ stuff you were doing instead? It just seems so… lame.”

Ed and Em looked at each other indignantly. Their dorky little sister was calling _them_ lame? But, surprisingly, it bothered them. But why? It wasn’t like they cared about their little sister thinking they were cool. Did they?

“Well… well that was just the beginning,” Ed said.

“Yeah,” Em said.

Ed and Em took Amity on a series of the kinds of activities that they typically did without her, but she remained unimpressed. Before long, she’d taken to playing around on her scroll.

Ed and Em realized they needed to kick it up a notch if they wanted to impress Amity. There _had_ been something they’d been considering for a while, but it was kind of risky. Still, if there were ever a time to pull out all the stops, it was now.

“All right,” Em said. “Next stop is the docks.”

At the docks, the three hid behind some crates as they watched a ship come in.

“So, what are we doing this time?” Amity asked dully.

“We heard about this from some friends,” Ed said. “Every day around this time, these people smuggle in something. We want to find out what it is.”

“Messing with smugglers? Isn’t that kind of dangerous?” Amity asked.

“I thought everything we did was lame,” Em said in a teasing singsong tone. Amity rolled her eyes in response.

Ed and Em made the three of them invisible and they all snuck onto the ship. Below deck, they found a number of crates. One big purple demon was there to stand guard, but it looked like he was bored and not very alert. The three snuck behind him and Ed and Em used their magic to take the lid off of one of the crates. Inside were a bunch of witch hats. Were they magical?

Then, a big snake slithered down the stairs.

“So, what’s coming in today?” the snake asked the demon.

“Knockoff designer hats. A fortune’s worth.”

Hearing that, Ed, Em, and Amity were all disappointed. That was it? What a letdown.

Then the snake flicked out his tongue.

“Something’s wrong,” he said. “Someone’s in here. I can taste them.”

Ed, Em, and Amity all tensed up. Ed and Em were worried that Amity would gasp or do something else to give them away, but she kept her cool, which impressed them.

The snake flicked its tongue out a few more times, and then, without any warning, slithered over and wrapped all three of them up in itself so fast that they didn't have a chance to react. They couldn’t move their arms to cast any magic, and they weren’t able to loosen its grip no matter how much they struggled.

“So,” the snake said. “Looks like we’ve caught some trespassers!”


	7. The Escape

“You should just let us go,” Em said.

“Yeah, we were just curious,” Ed said. “We won’t tell anyone.”

“You bet you won’t,” the snake said. He turned to the demon. “I’ll take these three aboveboard and drop them into the sea. They’ll be gobbled up by sea monsters in no time.”

“Great job, guys,” Amity said. “I’m having _so_ much fun.”

“Wait!” Ed said as the snake took them aboveboard. “Don’t you want to question us? Find out how we knew about your operation?”

“Hmm… not really,” the snake said.

“Our parents are rich!” Em said. “You could get a big ransom.”

“It isn’t worth the hassle,” the snake said.

The snake held them over the sea.

“Wait!” Ed said. “Before you drop us, I was wondering… I’ve never met a snake before. I guess I assumed you’d talk like, ‘It issssn’t worth the hassssssle’”

“Well, I don’t,” the snake said grumpily. Then, he released them.

Luckily, all three of them had been coming up with a plan of action, although they hadn’t been able to communicate their plans to each other. As soon as her arms were free, Amity drew a circle, and an abomination appeared directly below them. It caught them midair and threw them up before crashing into the sea, where the Blights saw a fearsome-looking creature surface to swallow it up. While Amity did that, Ed and Em grabbed hold of her and drew magical strings tying them to the mast of the ship.

“Hey, that was nice thinking, sis!” Em said as they hung from the mast. Amity just glared at her, which Em sensed somehow even though she couldn’t see it as they were all still invisible.

The snake began slithering up the mast to catch them, so Amity drew another circle to make a small abomination appear directly on top of it. The abomination fell on his head and they both went crashing down on the deck.

Ed and Em dropped them onto the deck and saw the demon come up from below. The three of them ran off the ship as quickly as they could. Then, Amity casted a fire spell and set the ship ablaze so the smugglers would have more pressing concerns than chasing after them. The three of them ran off as fast as they could.

Once they’d gotten what they hoped was a safe distance away, Ed and Em made the three of them visible again.

“So,” Ed said, looking at Amity. “In spite of everything, that was _kind_ of fun, right?”

Amity gave him a look that shut him up until they got back home. Once they walked in, Amity picked up her textbook from the living room and started walking to the stairs.

“Where are you going?” Em asked.

“I’m going to study.” Then she added, pointedly, “In my room.”

Em went over and grabbed her arm. “No! Study in the living room with us!”

Amity pulled away her arm and growled, “Fine, then I’m going to my room to _sleep_.”

“You’re making that up,” Ed said. “It’s still early.”

“Yeah, well I’m tired.” Amity said, glowering at the two of them. “After all, I’ve had to spend the day with some pretty exhausting people.”

With that, Amity went to her room, leaving Ed and Em crestfallen.


	8. Ed and Em Stay in School

After sleeping on it, Amity felt a little bad about getting so mad at Ed and Em. After all, it _had_ worked out in the end. And their intentions had been good. That morning, she came down to breakfast to find Ed and Em already there.

“Mittens,” Ed said. “We’re sorry things didn’t turn out so great yesterday.”

Amity sighed. “It’s OK. I didn’t need to be such a pain about it.”

“Yeah, you didn’t,” Em said.

Amity’s eyes narrowed. “I just said that to be nice. You two almost got us killed yesterday! You should be happy I wasn’t angrier.”

“Hey, let's not fight,” Ed said. Then he looked at Em and said, “You know, she’s right, Em.”

Em was stunned. How could Ed take Amity’s side over hers? But then she remembered how she’d said that from now on, they had to think of themselves as the three of them, not the two of them plus Amity. That meant not automatically taking each other’s side. And yeah, Amity _was_ right, wasn’t she?

“Sorry,” Em muttered under her breath. Then she cheered up and said, “But we’re going to make it up to you today!”

“Yeah!” Ed said. “We’ll do whatever you want all day.”

“What do you have in class today?” Em asked.

“Just lectures,” Amity said.

“Great!” Ed said. “That means you can cut.”

“What? I can’t cut class!” Amity said.

“Sure, you can,” Em said. “We’ll just make an illusion of you. If it’s all lectures, then it’s no problem.”

“No!” Amity said. “Absolutely not.”

As they walked to school, Ed and Em pleaded with Amity to cut class, but no matter what they said, she refused.

“Why does she have to be so difficult?” Em said to Ed outside the illusion homeroom once Amity had gone to her own classroom.

“I don’t know,” Ed said. “Well, let’s get going.”

Ed raised his arm to cast a spell circle to create illusions of himself and Em, expecting her to raise her arm to cast it with him. But to his surprise she instead said, “We can’t go.”

“What?” Ed said.

“We can’t go without Mittens,” she said.

“But that doesn’t make any sense! It would be one thing if we were in the same classes, but we won’t be spending time with her anyway. So, what would be the point of us staying in class?”

“The point is we're not going to go out and do something fun without her.”

“Maybe you aren’t," Ed said. "But I am.”

“What? You’re really going to cut class without me?”

“Yeah, if you’re going to be so unreasonable about the whole thing.”

Em clenched her fists. “Fine,” she said in a surly tone. “Do whatever you want.”

* * *

Ed left the school and reassured himself that he wasn’t doing anything wrong. What would be the point of staying in class? But cutting class all on his own wasn’t a lot of fun. And maybe it was his imagination, but everywhere he looked he saw people having fun together that looked like they could be siblings, from the similar-looking pair of demons on the see-saw at the slayground to the three witches standing in line to get ice cream that all had the same eyes.

Then, Ed picked up the aroma of freshly baked bread. He spotted a bakery and went inside. Maybe he could make it up to Em and Amity by bringing them a pastry or something.

“Oh, hello,” the man inside said. “I need to run, but my sister is just finishing frosting a cake. She’ll take care of you as soon as she’s done. Shouldn’t be more than a minute.”

“Your sister?”

“Yep, we run the bakery together. We’ve always been thick as thieves. I don’t know what we’d do without each other.”

“Oh, come on!” Ed said.

“Huh?”

“Uh, nothing. I just need to go. Sorry.” He stepped towards the door, but then went back in. After all, he figured that since he was already there, he might as well get something.

* * *

While Ed was failing to enjoy his time out of school, Em was sitting in class alone, and before long she started getting bored. She’d already stayed in class all of the day before. How could anyone be expected to sit through this for hours every single day? It was ridiculous! And usually even when they stayed in class, she and Ed could at least goof around and entertain each other. She wondered what Ed was doing at that moment. He was probably having the time of his life.

It wasn’t long before Em started wondering whether Ed had a point. It wasn’t like she was spending time with Amity this way. By the time the second class of the day started, she was sorely tempted to leave.

But then, the illusion of Ed poked her arm, which made her look at it and realize that it wasn’t the illusion after all. Em smiled, and Ed whispered, “You knew I was going to come back the whole time, didn’t you?”

Em whispered, “Actually, I was pretty sure you wouldn’t,” which made Ed roll his eyes.

“So,” he said. “You weren’t tempted to leave? At all?”

“Uh… no, of course not,” she lied.

“Yeah, sure,” Ed said with a smirk.

Ed and Em managed to make it through the morning. As soon as the bell rang for lunch, they started walking to Amity’s locker.

“So, are you going to tell Mittens that I left?” Ed asked.

“No,” Em said.

“Really?”

“Yeah. You came back. That’s what’s important.”

“Wow, thanks, Em!”

Knowing Em was going to cover for him, Ed realized it was a good thing after all that he’d ended up eating the whole tart he’d bought at the bakery on his way back to school, even though he’d felt a little guilty about it at the time. He’d _meant_ to only eat a third.

They got to Amity’s locker as she was putting away her books.

“Hey, guys,” she said to them. “So, what did you do this morning?”

“Nothing,” Em said. “We stayed in class.”

“You did? But… why?”

“We couldn’t go out and have fun without you,” Ed said.

Amity was astounded. Once again, Ed and Em had surprised her with their commitment to this whole thing. And even though she’d never asked them to do any of it, after seeing them go to the Azura book club, stay home while she studied, and not cut class that morning, Amity was feeling a little bad about ruining Ed’s and Em’s fun.

Amity hesitated. She couldn’t believe she was even considering this. But, finally, she said, “ _If_ I were to cut class in the afternoon… how would we go about it, exactly?” which made Ed and Em give her a pair of mischievous grins.


	9. Amity Cuts Class

Ed and Em made an illusion of Amity to take her place in class as well as two for themselves, and all three of them snuck out of Hexside.

“So, what are we going to do?” Amity asked.

“We’ll do whatever you want,” Ed said.

“Really?” Amity said. “Well, I’ve been wanting to go to the Museum of Supernatural History.”

Ed and Em both laughed.

“Leave it to Mittens to cut class just so she could go learn somewhere else,” Em said.

“Yeah,” Ed said. “We’re just lucky she didn’t say she wanted to sneak into the abomination class at another school.”

Amity folded her arms in front of her and her eyes narrowed. “Fine, we’ll do something else,” she snarled.

“No, no, we said you could pick what we do,” Ed said.

“Yeah,” Em said. “Let’s go.”

“No,” Amity said.

“Oh, don’t be such a baby,” Em said.

“Yeah, we’re doing what _you_ want,” Ed said. “You should be grateful.”

“Just forget it,” Amity said. Then, she tilted her head downward and said in a subdued tone, “I don’t even want to do it anymore.” She walked away and sat down at a nearby bench.

Ed and Em gave each other concerned looks. They hadn’t expected Amity to take what they’d said so hard. They walked over and sat down on each side of her.

“Hey, don’t be mad,” Ed said.

“Yeah, what we said… we just meant it as a little teasing,” Em said. “We didn’t mean to hurt your feelings.”

“You didn’t hurt my feelings,” Amity insisted. “I just don’t want you two bugging me while I’m trying to look at the exhibits.”

“We won’t,” Em said. “We promise.”

“Come on,” Ed said. “It’ll be fun.”

Amity hesitated before grumbling, “Fine, let’s just get this over with.”

As they made their way to the museum, with Ed and Em making sure not to crack any jokes about how boring it would be, Amity’s sour mood began to lift.

“Guys,” Amity said as they reached the doorway. “If you say you want to do something else, we can do something else. I won’t be mad.”

“No,” Em said. “Let’s do this.”

“Yeah,” Ed said. “We said you could pick what we do, and we’re sticking to that.”

“OK… but if you get bored, can you just tell me so we can leave instead of pulling pranks and getting us kicked out?”

Ed and Em chuckled and said yes in turn.

The three of them entered and were immediately amazed by the fossils of creatures that even those lifelong Boiling Isles residents found bizarre. There was something that looked like a transitional species between a giant frog and a griffin, ancient pixies that were bigger than all three of them put together, and some kind of aquatic giraffe.

Of course, Ed and Em couldn’t help but think of all the pranks they could’ve pulled if it were just the two of them. When they saw a field trip of little kids from another school all looking at the skeleton of what looked like a giant deer but with big, sharp fangs and a spiked tail, both imagined the fright they could’ve given those witchlings if they could make that skeleton look like it had come to life for just a few seconds. But for Amity’s sake they kept themselves under control. And they were somewhat surprised to find that they could enjoy themselves even while following all the rules.

“We’re having a really good time, Mittens” Ed said as the three of them looked at a diorama of ancient witches battling each other riding giant scorpions.

“Yeah!” Em said. “I’m sorry for what we said before we went.”

“Me too,” Ed said

“That’s OK,” Amity said. “I didn’t need to make such a big deal about it.” After a moment, Amity added, “The truth is, I picked this museum because I thought it would be something you two would like too. That’s why I was disappointed when you made fun of it.”

“Really?” Em said.

“Yeah,” Amity answered.

That made Ed and Em feel guilty.

“That’s really nice of you, Mittens” Ed said.

“Yeah,” Em said. “And you were right. We shouldn’t have made fun of you.”

Amity smiled and said, “It’s OK.”

The three of them went to the top floor to see an exhibit of minerals and gemstones, including the jewelry of an ancient, extraordinarily wealthy witch named Madame Blackberry who used to have all of her jewels enchanted. There was a ruby ring that when worn turned everything but the finger it was on into a puff of smoke, a sapphire necklace that allowed the wearer to melt into a pool of liquid, and a coral anklet that grew gills on the wearer to let them breathe underwater.

At least, that’s what the descriptions said they could do. None of them were supposed to be handled. This annoyed Ed and Em. Sure, the jewelry was pretty to look at, but why place these powerful magical items behind glass barriers so no one could use them?

To their surprise, Amity seemed to agree.

“Hey,” she said. “Putting these gems on display… it kind of seems like a waste, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Em said as Ed nodded.

Amity looked around. There was no one else in the hall. “I don’t suppose you’d have any way of _discretely_ getting our hands on them… for just a second.”

Ed and Em were astonished. Was this really their little sister? But the last thing they were going to do was question this turn of events. They grinned and brought out a sheet of little stickers with runes on them that worked similarly to the spell they’d used to get into the library, except these created openings just big enough for them to put their hands through. All three of them tried on each of the pieces of jewelry, making sure to keep an eye on the door and not make too much noise.

The last piece of jewelry was a pair of tiger’s eye earrings. There was no description accompanying them, so they approached it cautiously.

“Who wants to try them on?” Em asked.

“I’ll do it,” Amity said.

“Wait, let me try them on first,” Em said.

“Why?” Amity asked.

“I just want to make sure they’re safe,” she said.

Amity smiled but ignored her and put on the earrings. As soon as she did, she split into two identical Amitys, one with an earring on the right ear and the other with an earring on the left.


	10. Amity Gets a Twin

“Wow!” Ed and Em said.

The Amitys observed each other and said, “This is so weird,” in unison, surprising each other. Then, they both said, “Is that what my voice sounds like?”

After a bit, they realized that they weren’t actually identical. They each had either two right hands or two left hands, and it was the same with their feet.

Once Ed picked up on that, it gave him an idea.

“Hey, Mittens,” he said. “Both of you, try to cast a spell.”

The Amitys made spell circles, and while the left Amity successfully produced a small abomination, nothing happened for the right Amity.

“Oh, good thinking, Ed,” Em said. “Because the bile sac is on the left side, only the left Amity has one.”

“I don’t like this,” the right Amity said with just a hint of panic in her voice.

“You want to take it off?” the left Amity asked.

The right Amity’s thoughts turned to Luz. This was how she had to live all the time, and she still found a way to become a witch in spite of that. It really was incredible. To think that she’d once mocked Luz’s ambitions, and worse, tried to stop her from even being able to _try_ becoming a witch. The right Amity wondered if maybe staying like this for a little bit would make her understand Luz a little better.

“Maybe not right away,” the right Amity said.

“OK,” the left Amity said before turning to Ed and Em and adding, “Unless you two want to try them on?”

“Not really,” Ed said.

“Yeah, it looks kind of weird,” Em said.

Both Amitys laughed and said in unison, “It’s not that different from how things are for you already.” They’d already gotten used to having most of what they said repeated and didn’t let it phase them this time.

Ed and Em gave the Amitys puzzled looks.

“That’s not really the same,” Em said.

“Yeah,” Ed said. “I mean, we’re pretty different in some ways.”

The Amitys looked at the two of them and asked, “What was it like, always having each other around?”

“I don’t know,” Em said. “I guess it was just normal for us.”

“Yeah, I never really thought about it,” Ed said. “It would be like if I asked you what it was like _not_ having a twin.”

“Yeah, I see what you mean,” the Amitys said.

The Amitys scrutinized each other again. Looking at Ed and Em over the years, every so often Amity used wonder whether having a twin of her own would’ve been fun. But she wasn’t sure she could get along with anyone as well as Ed and Em got along with each other. Clearly that had something to do with their personalities, not just the fact that they were twins. Amity figured that if she had a twin, they would’ve probably gotten on each other’s nerves if they tried to spend as much time together as Ed and Em did with each other.

And if her twin were just like her, like what the Amitys were experiencing now, then it would be like she was always spending time with herself. The thought made her uneasy. What if she didn’t like some of the things that she saw?

Without discussing it, the Amitys simultaneously decided that it was time to take off the earrings. They merged back into one Amity, who reached into the case to put the earrings back. But just as she did, someone working for the museum came into the room.

“Hey, I saw what you did,” he said sternly.

The Blights, especially Amity, tried to act innocent as the man approached her and observed the case that held the earrings.

“I knew it,” he said. “Don’t touch the glass! You kids got fingerprints all over it.”

“Sorry,” all three said and then left the hall before he had a chance to get more suspicious.

“So,” Ed said with a smirk once they’d gotten down to the ground floor. “I guess we’re not the only troublemakers in the family.”

“Oh please,” Amity said. “Compared to you two, that was nothing. Just don’t expect me to do this kind of thing every day.”

The three of them would’ve preferred to see a few more exhibits, but Ed and Em had to get back for the last class of the day to do a demonstration, something their illusions couldn’t take care of. They walked back to Hexside, and once the penultimate class let out, Ed and Em waited for all three illusions to go to a secluded spot where they could dispel them and take their place without anyone noticing.

“Thanks, guys,” Amity said before heading to class. “I had a really great time.”

“So did we!” Ed said.

“Yeah!” Em said.

“I’m glad,” Amity said.

Amity went back to the abomination classroom in good spirits, but as soon as she reached the doorway, the abomination professor came up to her.

“Ah, Amity,” he said. “That is, if this is the real Amity this time.”

Amity gasped and her heart started racing. This was her worst nightmare! Unable to look the professor in the eye, her head turned to the floor.

“We had a pop quiz in the first class after lunch,” the abomination professor said. “The illusion you had take your place was unable to take it, of course.”

A pop quiz? The abomination professor _never_ gave pop quizzes! Why did he have to give one today of all days?!

“I… I’m sorry,” she said, still averting her gaze. She wished she could explain herself, but there was really no explanation.

“Go to Principal Bump’s office,” he said, and Amity complied, feeling close to the worst she’d ever felt in her life.


	11. Amity Gets Punished

As Amity waited outside Principal Bump’s office to be let in, she thought about her rotten luck. Ed and Em cut class all the time and never got in trouble for it, but the _one_ time she did, she got caught.

How could she have been so reckless? She wondered what her punishment would be. She could barely stomach the thought of detention, but what if it were worse? Suspension? What would her parents say if she got suspended?! And what if it were even worse than that? They couldn’t expel her for cutting class one time. Could they? Her whole future would be ruined!

Principal Bump let her in and they both sat down.

“Amity, I’m very surprised,” Bump began. “And disappointed.”

“I’m sorry, Principal Bump,” Amity said, staring at her knees. “I know I shouldn’t have done it.”

“Why _did_ you do it? Cutting class is so unlike you.”

“Well… I guess I don’t have a good explanation,” Amity said. “I’ll never do it again.”

“I should hope not. Did Edric and Emira put you up to this?”

Amity considered how to answer. She really wished she could give Principal Bump some kind of excuse for her actions. Anything. And Ed and Em _had_ encouraged her to cut class. It was so unfair that she’d be the only one to get in trouble for it, especially considering that this was the first time she’d ever done it. It was just like with the lawn. Ed and Em never got in trouble no matter what they did. Would it be so terrible if they faced some consequences for once?

And their refusal to do anything fun without her­­­– forcing her to watch them as they got more and more bored and miserable until she finally relented and did what they wanted– wasn’t it kind of manipulative?

Except they didn’t _mean_ to be manipulative. She was sure about that. They were just trying to be good siblings. And no matter how unfair it was, she didn’t want to get them in trouble anymore. So, she finally answered, “It was my decision.”

“Mm-hmm,” Bump said. He was no fool. He took notice of the long pause and the fact that Amity hadn’t exactly answered the question.

“Who made the illusion of you?” Bump asked, though he was sure he already knew the answer.

“Um… I’d rather not say.”

Principal Bump knew that he could threaten her with a worse punishment unless she told him, but that wasn’t his style.

“Well, if you’re not going to tell me, then I suppose the only thing left is your punishment,” he said. “This is the first time you’ve ever done anything like this, and it’s obvious how remorseful you are. So, I’ll be lenient. Your only punishment will be that the zero you got on today’s pop quiz will stand.”

Amity gasped, and her eyes started watering. She knew that getting a zero on that pop quiz was so much better than what she’d been fearing just a minute ago. But she’d never gotten a zero on anything in her life!

Amity’s reaction also surprised Principal Bump. He thought she’d be happy to get off so easy.

“I’m sure you’ll be able to make up for it,” Principal Bump reassured her. “Given how well you’ve done up until now, it’ll barely affect your grade.”

Amity nodded. “Thank you, Principal Bump. I’m sorry. It’ll never happen again.”

Amity left Bump’s office still feeling horrible. Sitting through what was left of the day’s last class, she imagined what the professor must’ve been thinking of her, not to mention all the other students. She tried to quell any feelings of resentment she had towards Ed and Em, but more and more she began to blame them for her current situation.

When the class ended, she ran out as quickly as she could without talking to or even looking at anyone. She couldn’t even bear waiting in the hall for Ed and Em. Instead, she sent them a message on her scroll saying she’d gone home without them before rushing to Blight Manor as quickly as she could and locking herself in her room.

When Ed and Em got back home, still wondering why Amity had left without them, they were disappointed to find that she wasn’t waiting for them in the living room. They went to her room and were again disappointed to find that it was locked.

“Mittens?” they called out in unison.

“Go away,” she said. “I just want to be alone.”

It was clear that she was seriously upset from the tone of her voice.

“What’s wrong?” Em asked. “Maybe we can help.”

After a moment, Amity reluctantly opened the door but stood at the doorway instead of letting them into her room.

“I got caught cutting,” Amity said. “There was a pop quiz.”

Ed and Em both gasped.

“We’re sorry, Mittens,” Ed said.

“Yeah,” Em said. “What was your punishment?”

“I got a zero on that quiz,” Amity answered.

Ed and Em waited for a moment before Ed said, “Is that it?”

“Well… yeah…”

Ed and Em breathed sighs of relief.

“Oh good,” Ed said. “The way you were acting, I thought it was something really terrible.”

“What?” Amity said.

“Yeah, that’s nothing,” Em said. “With your grades it’s not going to make any difference.”

“That’s… that’s all you have to say?” Amity said. “You don’t even care that you got me in trouble?”

“Hey, it’s not our fault you got in trouble,” Em said.

“Yeah,” Ed said. “Besides, it’s good for you in a way.”

“Excuse me?” Amity said.

“Yeah, it’s not good for someone to _never_ get in trouble,” Em said.

“What are you talking about? My reputation with my professor and Principal Bump is ruined!”

“Oh, don’t be so dramatic,” Ed said.

“Yeah," Em said. "Besides, it’s not good for you to be so obsessed with what your teachers think of you. You care more about Principal Bump's opinion of you than your own family and friends. It’s not healthy.”

Amity clenched her fists. “You two jeopardized my future and you don’t even care! You know what? You two are trying to be better siblings, but you’re messing up my life more now than you ever did even when you were mean to me!”

Ed and Em gasped. That hurt. And it made them angry.

“Forgive us for trying to introduce a little fun into your life!” Em said.

“Yeah, and at the expense of our own fun,” Ed said. “I don’t think you realize what an effort we’ve been making the past few days.”

“Yeah,” Em said. “You’re not always the most fun witch to be around.”

“Stop saying that!” Amity screamed to Ed’s and Em’s shock. “You two have been saying that to me for years, and I’m sick of it! Believe it or not, there are people who actually _do_ think I’m fun, and who _like_ spending time with me and… and don’t act like they’re doing me some big favor when they do! So why would I want to spend my time with you instead of them?!”

Ed and Em were taken aback by the outburst, and before they had a chance to respond, Amity slammed the door shut and locked it, leaving the two of them standing outside, stunned.


	12. Ed and Em Prank Principal Bump

Although Amity had screamed at her, Em felt guilty as she and Ed walked away from Amity's door. Didn’t Amity's outburst confirm what Ed had suggested to Em and that she’d been fearing? All their teasing and little comments over the years really _had_ affected Amity more than she’d ever realized.

“Can you believe she screamed at us like that?” Ed said. “She hasn’t changed at all! She still treats people terribly. We should’ve spread her diary around after all. Maybe we still should!”

“Don’t say that, Ed,” Em said sullenly. “It’s not all her fault.”

“What?” Ed had expected Em to agree with him like they always did with each other. “How can you say that?”

“Maybe she overreacted, but she was really upset, and we weren’t understanding at all.”

Ed prepared to contradict her, but then stopped. He had to admit he didn’t really think it was all Amity’s fault either.

“You know whose fault this really is?” Em said.

Ed sighed. “Ours?”

“What? No! It’s Principal Bump’s!”

Ed was confused for a moment, but then said, “Hey, you’re right! Mittens has been the perfect student her whole life, and the _one_ time she decides to let loose a little, he makes her feel terrible about it. It’s so unfair.”

“And not only that, he’s even turned her against her own family!” Em clenched her fists. “Why would Mittens blame _us_ for her punishment instead of him? It’s like he’s brainwashed her. I just wish we could get back at him somehow.”

“What if we could?” Ed said.

“Huh? How? Principal Bump’s pretty sharp. It’s going to be tough getting one over on him.”

“I bet I know someone who could: The Owl Lady!”

Em rolled her eyes. Ed really admired the Owl Lady. All he’d talked about on their way back from the Knee was how cool she was. It had been pretty annoying. But then she thought about it and realized that he was probably right. The Owl Lady was a powerful witch, and people still talked about some of the things she’d done as a student at Hexside. If anyone could help them pull a prank on Principal Bump, she could.

“Maybe you’re right,” Em said. “And it’ll give Mittens some time to cool off.”

“Let’s go!” Ed said, and the two of them left for the Owl House.

* * *

After spending a little time alone in her room, Amity wasn’t feeling quite as bad about getting caught cutting class. The zero on the quiz really wouldn’t affect her grade that much. And the abomination professor liked her. Surely if she redoubled her efforts and really impressed him over the next few days, he’d forget all about it.

But the less upset she felt about getting in trouble, the worse she felt about blowing up at Ed and Em. It wasn’t really fair to blame them for her getting in trouble. Just like she’d told Principal Bump, it had been her decision. And what they’d said about her not being any fun… it _had_ bothered her, but she didn’t need to scream at them.

After a while, she decided to talk to them. But she found that they weren’t in the living room or either of their rooms. After calling out to them and searching a bit more, she realized that they must have left the house. Without her.

Well, what could she expect after how she’d screamed at them? Amity went back to her room and tried to focus on studying, hoping that after going out and having a little fun they’d at least be willing to talk to her.

* * *

As Ed and Em approached the Owl House, Hooty immediately came up to them.

“Hi, guys,” Hooty said. “What are you two doing here?”

In no mood to deal with Hooty’s nonsense, Ed and Em casted a spell to tie his mouth shut. Hooty squealed in protest until Eda poked her head out the window.

“Oh, it’s you two,” Eda said. “Believe me, I’ve wanted to shut Hooty’s mouth many times, but he’s going to need to open it for you to come in.”

Reluctantly, Ed and Em undid the spell and put up with Hooty's chattering until they could enter the house.

“So, what brings you two here?” Eda asked.

“We want to pull a prank on Principal Bump,” Em said.

“And we figured if anyone could help us get away with it, it would be you,” Ed said.

Eda chuckled. “Well, you’re right about that. But no can do. I’ve got a kid at Hexside now. I can’t risk her getting in trouble because I got on Bump’s bad side.”

“So. you’re not going to help us?” Ed said with a whimper.

“Sorry,” she said.

Em sighed. “First Mittens, now you. I guess Principal Bump controls everyone.”

“Hey, nobody controls me!” Eda protested.

“It sure seems like it,” Em said.

“You twerps have a lot of nerve!” Eda grumbled. “Oh fine. If I can’t help you myself, maybe I can tell you how to pull it off. I know all about the security Principal Bump has in his office. Listen to what I say, and you’ll be able to get in without getting caught.”

“Great!” Ed said. “I knew you’d come through for us!”

“We just need to figure out what to do once we’re inside,” Em said.

“I might be able to help you there too,” Eda said. “Principal Bump tries to keep this a secret, but I happen to know he has a terrible fear.”

Ed’s and Em’s ears perked up… literally. What could be frightening enough to scare Principal Bump?

“He’s afraid of coconuts,” Eda said.

Ed and Em stared at her blankly for a moment.

“What?” Ed asked.

“Why would he be afraid of coconuts?” Em asked.

“Well, more specifically he’s afraid of a coconut falling off of a tree onto his head.”

“Oh, I guess that makes some sense.” Ed said.

“So, we’ll have to find a coconut tree somehow and put it in his office?” Em said. “How are we going to do that”

“I might be able to help,” Eda said. “I can cast a spell on a coconut so it’ll grow into a tree once you break it open.”

“Wow, you’ll really do that for us?” Ed said.

“Absolutely… and for a very reasonable price.”

Em rolled her eyes as Ed reached into his pocket.

* * *

Amity waited up for Ed and Em to come home, but when she heard them come in, she found herself apprehensive at the thought of talking things over with them. She decided to wait until the morning to let them sleep on it. But the next morning, she woke up to find that they’d left Hexside without her. Were they really so mad at her that they’d gotten up early to avoid seeing her?

Of course, Amity didn’t know that they’d actually gone to Hexside early to pull off their prank. With Eda’s instructions they were able to evade the security Bump had set around his office, from the giant praying mantis standing guard outside that had to be assuaged with a particular lullaby to the doorknob that would come alive and bite the hand of anyone that tried to turn it without first jiggling it a little to the abomination on the ceiling ready to drop on anyone but Bump who came through the door unless it was first frozen with the ice potion, which they’d also had to buy from Eda at what she _told_ them was a very reasonable price.

Once they were safely inside the office, Ed and Em broke the coconut Eda had given them behind Bump’s desk and stood in awe as it immediately grew into a tree that fit perfectly in the office, just reaching the ceiling, and which sprouted a pair of coconuts of its own.

“I wish we could see the look on Bump’s face when he sees this,” Em said.

“What if we could?” Ed said with a grin. “Bump will be so afraid when he sees the tree that as long as we’re quick we’ll be able to slip out without him even noticing.”

“I _would_ like to see Bump scared out of his wits… but what if we stay here and Bump isn’t really afraid of coconuts? We’ll get caught.”

“You think the Owl Lady scammed us?” Ed asked.

“I wouldn’t put it past her.”

“Come on, let’s take the risk. Where’s the fun in pulling a prank on Bump if we can’t even see the results?”

Em considered it and then grinned. “OK, let’s do it!”

The two of them hid under Bump’s desk, and it turned out that their concerns had been unfounded. After they’d been waiting for what felt like days but was really less than an hour, the door opened, and Ed and Em watched as Bump spotted the coconut tree. He gasped in horror and promptly passed out, landing on the floor with a thud.

Ed and Em jumped out from behind the desk and rushed to Principal Bump’s side.

“Is he going to be OK?” Em asked.

“Uh… yeah, I’m sure he’ll be fine,” Ed answered. “But maybe we should get rid of the tree before he wakes up and sees it again.”

Ed and Em stood on Bump’s desk and plucked the coconuts from the tree, which made it shrink until it disappeared. Then, they threw the coconuts out the window, checking to make sure no one was underneath, and ran out of Principal Bump’s office, laughing all the way to the illusion homeroom.

But as the morning went on, their excitement at pulling off the prank wore off. By the time they'd been let out for lunch, it was nearly completely gone.

“You know…” Em said. “Pulling that prank on Principal Bump didn’t cheer me up as much as I thought it would.”

Ed nodded. “Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Maybe all this wasn't really Bump's fault.”

Em sighed. "Maybe it’s time for us to just talk to Mittens.”

Ed looked askance. “Well… I don’t see why we should be the ones to go to her after how she screamed at us last night.”

“Oh, come on, do you really want to play that game?" Em said. "We’re the older siblings. That means sometimes we have to be the ones to act mature.”

Ed scowled, but after a moment his expression softened and he said, “Fine, let’s go.”


	13. Amity and the Twins Separate

A few minutes after he’d passed out, Principal Bump woke up to find that the coconut tree was gone. Had he imagined it? He didn’t think so. But who knew about his inexplicable fear of getting hit by a coconut? He picked himself up and looked around the office for any sign of who might’ve been responsible, but whoever it was hadn’t left a trace.

“Principal Bump?” he heard a voice say from behind his door that he recognized as the illusion professor’s.

“Come in,” he said.

She entered and said, “I just came to ask about the field trip proposal I sent you last week.”

“Oh… yes, it all looked in order.”

“Great. By the way, has anything strange been happening around the school this morning?”

“Why do you ask?”

“It’s just that I saw Edric and Emira Blight laughing in the illusion homeroom this morning. And in my experience, when they’re laughing like that, it’s usually because they’ve been up to something.”

“I see,” Bump said sourly.

After the illusion professor left, Bump considered the situation. He didn’t have any proof that Edric and Emira had been behind the incident, and he could hardly punish them for laughing a certain way.

Then he wondered, could Amity have been involved? After all, he’d punished her the day before, and she hadn’t taken it well. But she’d seemed sad and remorseful, not angry or defiant. And Amity would never go so far as to break into his office to pull a prank on him. Then again, until the day before he would’ve said she would never cut class.

No, Amity couldn’t have been involved. But just the fact that he’d suspected her for even a moment was troubling. It made Bump think he should have a talk with her. Bump sent a message to the abomination professor telling him to send Amity to his office, and it wasn’t long before she arrived.

“I-Is something wrong, Principal Bump?” Amity asked, clearly full of anxiety.

“Don’t worry, you’re not in any trouble,” Principal Bump said, which made her relax. “I just wanted to talk about something with you.”

“Oh, what?” Amity asked.

“Amity, despite your lapse yesterday, you’re an excellent student–”

“Thank you, Principal Bump!” Amity interrupted.

“Yes, yes. Anyway, I know you have high ambitions. And as Principal of Hexside, I see it as my responsibility to help you reach those ambitions and fulfill your potential.”

Amity wasn’t sure what he was getting at.

“But sometimes even the best students can be led astray by people close to them if they’re not careful,” Principal Bump continued. “So, I just wanted to advise you to be wary of the influence that certain people around you might be having. And I wanted to warn you that if you associate with certain people too much, other people might judge you based on their actions even if you didn’t do anything wrong yourself. That’s something you should keep in mind.”

“OK,” Amity said. “But… I guess I’m not quite sure what you mean.”

“Well, I wanted to just give you some general advice. But to be honest, I was thinking about your siblings, Edric and Emira.”

“Oh,” Amity said, her brow furrowed.

“I know you don’t want to admit it,” Bump said. “And I won’t ask you to. But it’s pretty obvious to me that they’re the reason you skipped class yesterday. And I’m concerned that they might ask you to do similar things in the future. Or worse. So, I just wanted to tell you to be mindful about that.”

“But… but sometimes they’ve helped me be a better student too,” Amity protested. “They helped me train for the entrance exam.”

“Oh?” That surprised Bump. “Well… that’s good. But it doesn’t negate the other effects I suspect they’ve had on your academics. All I’m saying is that you should be cautious.”

“OK, Principal Bump,” Amity said. “I understand.”

Amity left Principal Bump’s office and thought about what he’d said. Even if it had ultimately been her decision, she knew that if it hadn’t been for Ed and Em she would’ve never cut class and gotten a zero on that pop quiz. But even before that, spending time with them had seriously cut into her time studying. Even if she _had_ refused to cut class, Amity wasn’t even sure she would’ve done all that well on the pop quiz anyway. Maybe Ed and Em really _were_ obstacles in her path to success.

And what about what would be best for Ed and Em? Amity knew that they were only spending time with her because for whatever reason they were feeling guilty about how they used to treat her, not because they really liked it. They’d told her as much the night before. All she’d done was spoil their fun and been mean to them. And they’d said they’d had fun at the museum the day before, but had they really? What if they’d just said that to make her happy? Maybe they’d be better off if they didn’t feel this new obligation to include her more.

Amity ruminated on those thoughts throughout the morning. Then, at lunch, Ed and Em came to her locker.

“Mittens?” Em said.

“Yeah?” Amity said.

“We wanted to say we’re sorry for what happened yesterday,” Em said.

“Yeah,” Ed said. “We shouldn’t have acted like you getting in trouble was no big deal when you were so upset about it.”

Amity was surprised. She’d expected them to be angry with her for how she’d treated them the night before. It made what she’d decided to do all the more difficult.

“No,” Amity said. “ _I’m_ the one who’s sorry. I’ve been wanting to tell you that since last night.”

“Really?” Ed said.

“Yeah. I was upset and I took it all out on you two and blamed you for things that weren’t your fault and… I’m sorry.”

Ed and Em smiled.

“Hey, it’s OK,” Ed said.

“Yeah,” Em said. “Let’s just put it behind us.”

“Wait,” Amity said. “That’s not all. I also wanted to say… I think we should stop hanging out.”

Ed and Em were silent for a moment.

“You mean… during school?” Em asked.

“No… I mean… in general,” Amity said.

Ed and Em stood in stunned silence for a moment.

“I’ve got to go,” Amity said, not looking either of them in the eye as she left.

Ed and Em looked at each other in confusion.

“Why would she say that?” Em asked. “Does she need more time to cool off?”

“I don’t think so,” Ed said gloomily. “She didn’t seem angry.”

Em frowned. Ed was right; this seemed like a calculated decision, which made it worse than if Amity had said it in a moment of anger.

“But what about our pledge to always stick together?” Em asked.

“I don’t know,” Ed said. “We made that pledge because we felt guilty. We didn’t really think about what was best for Mittens.”

Em’s brow furrowed as she considered.

“Ed… it sounds like you’re saying Mittens would be better off without us.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“But… what if it’s true? Think about it. Ever since we started this, what have we done for Mittens? All we’ve done is ruin her little date with Luz, almost gotten her killed, gotten her in trouble, hurt her grades, and made her feel miserable.”

“Well… yeah… but you’re painting it in the worst possible way.”

“How would you paint it in a better way?” Em asked.

Ed thought about it and couldn’t answer, his gaze tilting downwards.

After a few moments, Em said, “Hey, we shouldn’t feel so bad. Things will go back to normal. What’s so bad about that?”

“Yeah, I guess,” Ed said, and the two went to the cafeteria feeling glum.


	14. Principal Bump Has Second Thoughts

The next couple of days passed uneventfully. Ed and Em went about having their fun, and Amity focused on her studies. She impressed the abomination professor with her next assignment so much that he said she could retake the pop quiz for half credit, which thrilled her. Really, things weren’t all that different than how they’d been as recently as a few weeks ago, so it should’ve felt familiar and comfortable. But all three felt like things weren't right.

One morning, Amity came in early to prep an assignment when she passed by Principal Bump in the hallway.

“Amity,” Bump said. “I hear you’ve been doing very well in class lately.”

“Thanks, Principal Bump,” she said. She looked around to make sure no one was around to hear. “I took your advice about Edric and Emira.”

“I’m glad to hear it,” Bump said.

“Yeah, I don’t see them at all anymore.”

“Oh,” Principal Bump said. “Well… that’s not _exactly_ what I told you.”

“I know, but… it’s better this way,” Amity said, though she looked uncertain. “Thanks for all your advice,” she added, before heading to class with her head downturned.

The rest of the morning, Bump went about his tasks but found that his thoughts kept returning to his encounter with Amity. Had his warning to her about Edric and Emira been out of line? He didn’t think so. All he’d said was to be careful about the influence they might have on her. It had been _her_ decision to cut them out of her life completely. And from what the abomination professor was telling him, Amity had been thriving in class lately. Shouldn’t that be his only concern from his standpoint as her principal?

But she’d looked so unhappy walking to her locker. And the fact that she’d been willing to do such a thing because of one meeting with him… what did that say? Maybe it was none of his business, but the whole thing seemed off.

As he thought about it, to his utmost surprise, Bump found that there was one person he kept wanting to discuss things with: the worst student he’d ever had.

Bump got on his crystal ball and called Eda, who answered immediately.

“Principal Bump?” she said. “Oh no, what’s Luz gotten herself into this time?”

“No, it’s nothing like that,” Bump said.

“Oh good. So, what is it?” Eda asked hoping that he hadn’t found out about her involvement in the coconut prank or uncovered some of the stuff she’d done at Hexside that _hadn’t_ made its way into her permanent record.

Bump wasn’t quite sure what it was he wanted to ask Eda himself. After a moment, he said, “Eda… what’s your opinion of me as a principal?”

Eda smirked and chuckled, so Bump added, “And please, be serious.”

That puzzled Eda. Principal Bump asking for her opinion about his performance was one of the last things she’d have ever expected.

Back when she’d been a student, Eda had thought of Principal Bump as her greatest adversary. But now that she had some perspective, she realized that Bump could’ve been a lot harsher towards her than he had been. Most principals would have. Plus, he’d let Luz into Hexside, and she’d been doing so well there. She had to be grateful for that. Luz always came home from school so excited to talk about her day­… whether she wanted to hear about it or not.

“First, let me ask you this,” Eda said. “You’re letting Luz study all the tracks. But I wanted to do the same thing, and you never let me! What changed? Are you softening in your old age?”

“Maybe it’s because Luz convinced me that I was wrong instead of just acting out,” Bump said.

Eda grumbled for a bit. Then, she answered his question. “You know that I’m not the biggest fan of authority… but as far as principals go, I could imagine a lot worse.”

“Thank you… I guess…” Bump said. “You may find this hard to believe, but I try to do more than just teach my students magic. I want to encourage them to be independent thinkers.” He noticed the skeptical look on Eda’s face and pointedly added, “Within reason.”

“If you say so,” Eda said. “But why are you telling me all this?”

“Well… it has to do with one of my students. I’m worried that she might be too willing to sacrifice important things in her life to reach her goals… and that I might have encouraged that mindset. I only wanted to help her reach her full potential. But I’m wondering whether I’ve been shortsighted in what I’ve been telling her. And maybe I never fully realized how much influence I have over her.”

Of course, hearing that made Eda think of the time she and Lily had both wanted to join the Emperor’s Coven and her decision to let her sister take the spot. To think she’d ever been that naïve about Belos and his regime. But she’d chosen her sister over her dream.

Although it hadn’t exactly been the same as what Bump was describing. Even if she hadn’t known the extent of Belos’s tyranny at the time, she’d known even then that a life of following orders in the Emperor’s Coven wouldn’t suit her. She’d only really wanted to join because it would allow her to practice all forms of magic. And to be with Lily.

Eda shook off her reveries and turned her attention back to the conversation at hand, asking, “So, what are you going to do about it?”

“I don’t know,” Bump said. “Maybe I’ve already interfered too much. Anyway, thank you for taking this call. I know it’s a bit unusual.”

“Hey, any time!” Eda said. “I’ve always said you could use my advice on how to run the place.”

“Well,” Bump said. “I wouldn’t go that far.”


	15. Amity and the Twins Reunite

That afternoon, Ed and Em cut class and were trying to figure out what to do when they saw a witch handing out flyers.

“What’s this?” Ed asked, taking one.

“It’s for the Museum of Supernatural History,” the witch said. “There’s a special exhibition coming up.”

“Oh,” Ed said gloomily. Being reminded of the museum made him think of Amity. Since the day they’d pulled that prank on Principal Bump, they’d barely seen her.

Em took the flyer from Ed and said, “Do you think Mittens has been lonely the past few days?”

“I don’t know,” Ed said. “Probably not.”

“Yeah,” Em said. “She never really needed us.”

Ed and Em walked around for a bit longer until Ed said, “I don’t like this.”

Em didn’t need to ask what he was talking about. “Neither do I. But what can we do? Mittens doesn’t want to have anything to do with us. And all we’ve done is cause her trouble.”

“Yeah, but maybe the problem is we never _really_ tried to do what she wanted. We just hung around her until she agreed to do whatever we wanted. Even when we did let her choose what to do, it was always on _our_ terms.”

“Well… maybe. But what can we do about it now?”

“I have an idea,” Ed said. “What if we read the Azura books? We could surprise her once we finish. Think of how excited she’d be!”

Ed expected Em to jump on the idea, but instead she said, “I don’t know about that.”

“What?” Ed said. “Why not? Don’t you think she’d like it?”

“Probably.”

“So, what’s the problem?”

“Well… well why should I spend all my time reading that book for her sake?” Em asked. "Especially now." Em frowned and looked away. “We already tried reaching out to her, and all she did was push us away!”

“Hey, wait a minute! You acted like we should keep away from Mittens for her own good. But really it was just because she hurt your feelings!”

“No!” Em insisted. Then, after a moment, said, “I mean… that wasn’t the _main_ reason.”

Ed just stared at her for a moment.

“Well… didn’t she hurt yours?” Em asked.

“No. I mean… even if she did a little, what are we going to do, just never see her again? Is that really what you want?”

Em glanced at the flyer again before sighing and saying, “Fine, let’s get the stupid book.”

* * *

Meanwhile, as Amity was getting done with her classes for the day, she wondered what Ed and Em were doing. Had they stayed in class or cut it?

The past few days, Amity had barely seen Ed and Em. After she’d rejected them, she’d expected them to start teasing her like they used to or pull some pranks. She’d been on edge in expectation of what they’d do. But nothing happened. Strangely, that made her feel worse. Maybe it was messed up to look at it this way, but when Ed and Em used to pick on her, at least that meant that they shared _some_ type of relationship. Now, it was like they were strangers.

Amity went to her locker when Luz approached her.

“Amity!” Luz said.

“Oh, hi, Luz,” Amity said, looking askance.

“I was thinking we should have another Azura book club,” Luz said.

“That sounds nice… but I wouldn’t be able to do it today,” Amity said with a sigh. “I have to work on an assignment for class.”

Amity hated the idea of missing out on an opportunity to spend time with Luz. But just like with Ed and Em, those were the sacrifices that she needed to make to succeed. Right?

“Oh, maybe another time,” Luz said. “When we do meet, will Ed and Em be joining us again?”

“Um… no,” Amity said. “I don’t think so.”

“Oh… well that’s OK,” Luz said. “I’d rather be alone with you.”

“Really?” Amity said, blushing.

“Yeah! It would be nice to discuss the books with someone who really knows them without having to recap them to someone else.”

Amity slumped. So that’s what she’d meant.

“Luz,” Amity said after a moment. “Do you think I could ask you something?”

“What?”

Amity considered how to word it, exactly. Something like, “If you had people you cared about, but they might be a liability towards your goals, would you abandon them?”

Except now that she’d put it into words, she realized that she didn’t need to ask. She knew what Luz would say.

“Actually, never mind,” Amity said. “I think I already know the answer. Thanks for your help, Luz.”

“But I didn’t do anything.”

“You did. Anyway, I need to get home.”

Amity started heading back to Blight Manor, but she was concerned that Ed and Em wouldn’t want to have anything to do with her. Ever since they’d reached out to her, every time they’d wanted to do something, she’d resisted, and even when she’d relented, she’d had a bad attitude about it.

And they didn’t think she was any fun. Now that they’d gotten a taste of life without her again, why would they want to go back to including her? Maybe she needed to think about something _they’d_ want to do to entice them.

Amity got home and saw Ed and Em in the living room. It looked like they were reading something, which they hurriedly put away when they saw her. That was surprising, but Amity ignored it.

“Guys,” Amity said. “I’m… I’m sorry I said we shouldn’t hang out anymore. I was wrong.”

“Really?” Ed said.

“Yeah,” Amity said.

Ed smiled, but Em asked, “Well… why did you do it?”

“It was stupid. Principal Bump said something to me, and–”

“Principal Bump!” Ed and Em both yelled, to Amity’s surprise.

“Yeah,” Amity said, confused.

“I can’t believe him!” Ed said. “Was this because of the prank we pulled on him?”

“You pulled a prank on Principal Bump?” Amity asked.

“Yeah, we were angry that he punished you,” Em said.

“Really?” Amity couldn’t believe it. They’d done that for her? It made her feel worse about rejecting them because of his advice. It also gave her an idea. “What if the three of us pulled a prank on Principal Bump together?”

Ed and Em looked at each other in surprise.

“You really want to do that?” Ed asked.

“Yeah. I mean… that’s the kind of thing you two like to do, isn’t it?”

“Yeah!” Em said.

“Great! Let me just put away my stuff and we can go.”

As Amity ran off to her room, Em noticed that Ed looked uncertain.

“What’s wrong?” she asked. “Don’t you want to get back at Bump?”

“Yeah, but weren’t we supposed to be doing something Mittens would want to do?”

“We can always read the book when we get back.”

That seemed to satisfy Ed. Soon, Amity came down, and the three of them left to pull off their prank.


	16. At Principal Bump's House

“So, what kind of prank should we pull?” Amity asked, hoping they wouldn’t choose something too drastic or dangerous. After all, Bump really hadn’t done anything other than try to help her.

“We already left something in his office,” Ed said. “It would be boring to do the same thing again.”

“What about his house?” Amity asked.

“You know where he lives?” Em asked.

“Yeah, he brought a few of us over once with the professor to look at some rare magic books in his library.”

“Great!” Ed said. “Now let’s see what we’ve got here.”

Ed started digging into the bag he’d grabbed from the house before they'd left which held the various magical accoutrements that he and Em had collected for these kinds of situations. He pulled out a cloud jar.

“How about this?” Ed said. “We’ll make it invisible and put it on the doorstep. Once he steps on it and breaks it, the cloud will form under him and he’ll float away.”

Em nodded. “Seems pretty good.”

Amity was just glad that it was something relatively harmless. Principal Bump would be able to get himself down. And even if he couldn’t, those kinds of clouds always floated back to where they’d started… eventually.

Once they got close to Bump’s house, Ed and Em casted some illusions to disguise the three of them.

“I can’t wait to get back at Bump,” Em said, making a fist with her right hand and slamming it into her left.

“You seem really angry,” Amity said.

“I am!” Em said. “How could he tell you not to hang out with us anymore?”

“Well… he didn’t say that, exactly,” Amity “He just said to be careful not to let you mess things up for me like the pop quiz.”

“Oh,” Em said. That gave her pause. “So… do you think we _have_ been messing things up for you?”

“No,” Amity said. “Well… maybe sometimes. But I overreacted when I said we shouldn’t hang out anymore.”

Em studied her little sister. Pulling a prank on Principal Bump had been _her_ idea, but she looked really uncomfortable. What if she were messing things up for Amity again? Hadn’t she learned anything from the past few days?

“Mittens,” Em said. “You don’t really want to do this, do you?”

Amity hesitated. “I don’t want you guys to think I’m no fun.”

“We don’t,” Em said. “Right, Ed?”

“Yeah,” Ed said. “Remember how much fun we had at the museum?”

“You’re just saying that,” Amity said.

“No!” Ed said. “I’m sorry we ever said you weren’t fun. It’s not true.”

Em put her hand on Amity’s shoulder and said, “Why don’t we go home?”

“Are you sure?” Amity asked.

“Yeah,” Em said. “You don’t need to do this kind of thing if you don’t want to just for us.”

Amity smiled. Then, just as they were heading out, Principal Bump arrived.

“Who are you?” he yelled out.

The Blights gave each other uneasy looks.

“Uh, we’re selling things door-to-door,” Ed said, trying to make his voice raspy and low as possible.

“Care for a cloud jar?” Em asked in a high, squeaky voice.

“Hmm… no, I don’t think so. Is that all you’ve got?”

“No, we have lots of stuff,” Ed said, which made Em glare at him.

“Oh? Let me see what you’ve got in that bag of yours.”

Em resisted the urge to give Ed a smack on the head. Ed, feeling like he had no choice, handed over the bag for Bump to rummage through.

“You’ve got some interesting stuff here, but nothing that I need,” Bump said. “Wait a minute, is this a Hexside t-shirt?” He studied them. “You’re not Hexside students, are you? I don’t recognize you.”

“No, no,” Ed said. “We’re just big fans of their grudgby team.”

That seemed to satisfy Bump. He went back to the bag and a moment later pulled out a set of stickers like the ones they’d used to get the jewelry in the museum. “Wait a minute, aren’t these illegal?”

“Oh, are they?” Em said, chuckling nervously.

Principal Bump rummaged a little more until he pulled out a rolled-up scroll.

“Oh, what’s this?” Bump said.

“Careful with that!” Em said. “It’s dangerous!”

“Oh, come now, if this were so dangerous, you wouldn’t be selling it door-to-door.”

“Just don’t unroll it,” Ed said.

“You salespeople are all the same,” Bump said. “You’ll do anything to try to make your wares seem mysterious and alluring. Those tricks aren’t going to work on me.”

As Ed and Em shouted for him to stop, Bump unrolled the scroll. The symbols on it started glowing, and ropes emanated from them, tightly binding the four of them up.

“Hey, what is this?!” Bump said indignantly.

“We told you not to open it!” Ed said.

Amity rolled her eyes. Why would they even have something like that?

Bump seemed to be thinking similarly. “Why would anyone buy this?" he said. "Wait a minute, I don't think you're really salespeople! What are you, robbers?”

“No!” Amity said, aghast. “We were just going to pull a little prank, but we changed our minds even before you got back.”

Ed and Em groaned. Why would she admit all that? At least Bump didn’t know who they were.

“Let’s just get out of these ropes and we’ll leave,” Em said. “Does anyone have a free hand?”

Bump, Ed, and Amity said no in turn. Then, they heard loud thumping and looked up to see an abomination lumbering over.

“Oh no!” Bump said. “That’s my security abomination! It must’ve heard me shouting and thought I was in danger.”

“Can’t you just command it to cower?” Amity asked.

“No,” Bump said. “It’s enchanted so that when it thinks I’m in danger, it won’t listen to any commands until I’m safe in its arms. I can’t stop it without drawing a spell circle.”

“Principal Bump,” Ed said. “You’ve got to reach into that bag with your teeth and pull out a fire crystal to burn the scroll. Then the ropes will start to disappear”

“Just don’t bite too hard,” Em said. “Or you might set your mouth on fire instead of the scroll.”

“Just how I wanted to spend the evening,” Bump said before doing what they’d instructed.

The ropes started to disappear, but Bump still didn’t have a hand free by the time the abomination got to them. It lifted a foot to stomp on them, but Amity used a newly free hand to summon her own abomination in the nick of time. It caught Bump’s abomination’s foot before it landed and knocked it over.

Then, Ed and Em used a free hand to make an illusion of Bump on the other side of the lawn hoping to confuse his abomination. But that turned out to unnecessary. By the time the abomination got to its feet, Bump had been freed from his ropes and cast a spell to stop it, which made the Blights breath sighs of relief.

“You three have certainly caused me a lot of trouble,” Bump said. “Wait a minute… three people with a Hexside shirt come to my house to pull a prank, two cast illusion magic together, one casts abomination magic…”

Amity was terrified, and Ed and Em prepared to throw down the cloud jar and float out of there before Bump got a chance to confirm what he seemed to be suspecting.

But before they made their move, Bump considered the implications of what he was thinking. He’d been right about Edric and Emira leading Amity into making bad choices, and she’d completely disregarded his advice! By all rights he should’ve been furious. And concerned for Amity.

So… why wasn’t he? Why was he instead… relieved?

He couldn’t believe he was doing this, but instead of trying to stop them, Bump tossed their bag of tricks over to them, which Em caught. Then he looked at Amity.

“I hope you’ve learned to never do anything like this again,” Bump said. “Whoever you are.”

Amity nodded and said, “I won’t.” Then, the three Blights ran away as quickly as they could.


	17. Back to Normal?

Once they’d put some distance between themselves and Bump, Ed wondered, “Do you think he knew it was us?”

“I’m not sure,” Amity said.

“Why do you think he let us go?” Em asked.

“Maybe there’s another side to him we haven't seen,” Amity said.

Em sighed. “Sorry we got you into another mess.”

“You didn’t this time,” Amity said. “For once, _I_ got _you_ into one.”

“Oh yeah!” Em said. “It was _your_ idea to pull a prank on Bump. I was really surprised. That's so unlike you.”

“Yeah,” Amity said. “After everything I said and did, I wanted to make it up to you by thinking of something you two would want to do.”

“Really?” Ed said.

“We thought the same thing!” Em said. “We started reading the Azura books.”

“Really? You did?” Amity was astounded. She used to always try to get them to read the Azura books, but she'd given up on that a long time ago because they'd always adamantly refused.

“Em! That was supposed to be a surprise once we’d finished!” Ed said. Then, he turned to Amity and added, “It was _my_ idea,” which made Em roll her eyes.

“Wow, that's… that's really nice," Amity said. "So, how do you like it so far?”

Ed and Em exchanged glances.

“Uh… it’s great,” Ed said unconvincingly.

“Yeah,” Em said. “We love it.”

Amity sighed in disappointment. "Come on, what do you really think?"

Ed and Em hesitated until Ed said, "Fine, we don't like it."

"Honestly, I don't know how you can read it," Em said. Ed glared at her, prompting her to say "What? It's true."

"We're sorry," Ed said.

“Guys, it’s OK if you don’t like the book!” _It just means you have bad taste_ , she thought. “You don't need to say sorry for that." After a moment, she continued. "I’ve been thinking, the three of us are never going to be happy trying to spend as much time together as the two of you do. We’re just too different.”

Ed and Em frowned.

“But that’s OK!” Amity continued. “That doesn’t mean we can’t do fun things together. Just not all the time.”

“But... we don’t want you to feel like you’re the odd one out,” Ed said.

“I won’t,” Amity said.

“If you ever do, will you tell us?” Ed asked.

Amity laughed. “If I ever said that, you’d just make fun of me.”

“No!” Ed exclaimed, surprising Amity with how emphatic he was. “We wouldn’t!”

Amity smiled. “OK, I’ll tell you.”

Ed seemed satisfied, but Em still looked uncertain.

“Mittens,” she said after a few moments. “Do you think I’ve been a good sister to you?”

Amity considered how to respond. It would’ve been easy to just say yes, but the truth was Em hadn’t always been. And Amity thought she deserved an honest answer. Finally, she said, “I’m glad you’ve been my sister. I wouldn’t want anyone else in your place.”

Em smiled. It hadn’t escaped her that the answer wasn’t an unqualified yes, but it was a start. She affectionately ruffled Amity's hair until she pushed her hand away and said, "Cut it out!" which made Em laugh.

Soon after that they reached Blight manor.

“I’m going to study,” Amity said. “But maybe we can do something the day after tomorrow.”

Em nodded and Ed said, “That sounds good.”

Amity went to her room, and Ed and Em relaxed in the living room.

“Looks like things are finally back to normal,” Ed said.

“Yeah,” Em said.

“And I’m glad we don’t have to read that silly book,” Ed said.

“I know! How could Mittens get so obsessed with that junk?” Em said, and they both laughed.

Then after a moment, Em said, “Although… I _was_ wondering whether Azura gets her staff.”

“Of course she does,” Ed said. “She has it on the cover.”

“Oh yeah," Em said. "How silly of me.”

“Although… speaking of the cover, I was kind of curious what that little furry creature would be like.”

“Yeah,” Em said. “Me too…”

* * *

Hours later, Amity was fast asleep when she was woken up by loud knocking at the bedroom door.

“What?” she said. She went over and opened the door to find Ed and Em standing there. And just when she'd thought that things were getting back to normal.

“It’s the middle of the night,” Amity said groggily. “What are you doing here?”

“We finished the first Azura book,” Em said.

“But I told you that you didn’t have to do that for me,” Amity said.

“I know… but since we’d already started the first book, we just wanted to know how it ended,” Ed said.

“Yeah, but we didn’t think it would end on a cliffhanger,” Em said. “What a dirty trick!”

Amity smirked. "So, you like it after all."

"No," Em insisted. "We just want to know what happens."

"I can just tell you."

"No!" Em blurted out. "We… kind of want to see how it's written."

Amity chuckled.

"So… can we borrow your copy of the second one?” Ed asked.

“I don’t have it here,” Amity said. “It’s at the library. I’ll get it for you after school tomorrow.”

“How about before school?” Ed asked.

Amity sighed. “OK, OK, before school.” Anything to get rid of those two so she could get back to sleep.

“Thanks,” Em said. “Although… since you’re already up…”

Amity groaned. It was going to be a long night.


End file.
